Dassault Rafale
Background The Dassault Rafale is a French twin-engine, canard delta-wing, multirole fighter aircraft designed and built by Dassault Aviation. Dassault describes the Rafale as being an omnirole fighter, with a high level of agility, capable of simultaneously performing air supremacy, interdiction, reconnaissance, and airborne nuclear deterrent missions. The Rafale is distinct from other European fighters of its era in that it is almost entirely built by one country, involving most of France's major defence contractors, such as Dassault, Thales and Safran. In the late 1970s, the French Air Force and Navy were seeking to replace and consolidate their current fleets of aircraft. In order to reduce development costs and boost prospective sales, France entered into an arrangement with four other European nations to produce an agile multi-purpose fighter, but subsequent disagreements over workshare and differing requirements led to France's pursuit of its own development program. Dassault built a technology demonstrator which first flew in July 1986 as part of an eight-year flight-test programme, paving the way for the go-ahead of the project. The Rafale's design and production processes exploited the unprecedented advancements in software technology. These advancements have enabled the integration of formerly individual components and combined with intelligent automated analysis processes, known collectively as data fusion. Many of the aircraft's avionics and features, such as direct voice input, the RBE2 AA active electronically scanned array radar and the Optronique secteur frontal infra-red search and track sensor, were indigenously developed and produced for the Rafale programme. Originally scheduled to enter service in 1996, post-Cold War budget cuts and changes in priorities contributed to significant delays to the programme. Introduced in 2001, the Rafale is being produced for both the French Air Force and for carrier-based operations in the French Navy. It has also been marketed for export to several countries, including selection by the Indian Air Force. The Rafale has been used in combat over Afghanistan, Libya, and Mali; features such as the SPECTRA integrated defensive-aids system have been crucial advantages in these theatres. Several upgrades to the radar, engines, and avionics of the Rafale are planned to be introduced in the near future. Model Type - Rafale Class - Multirole Fighter Crew - 1 or 2 SDC By Location Nose/Cockpit 180 Main Body/fuselage 510 Wings (2) 160 Tailplanes (2) 110 Engines 240 AR - 10 Armour - Stops upto and including 22cal pistol rounds. Explosive and ramjet rounds are still effective. Speed Flying - Mach 2 at high altitude, mach 1 at low altitude Range - Combat Radius 1850km Altitude - 16800m (55000 ft) Statistics Height - 5.34m Length - 15.27m Width - 10.8m (wingspan) Weight - 24.5 tons maximum, 9.5 tons empty, 14.02 tons loaded Cargo - Minimal survival gear Power System - 2× Snecma M88-2 turbofans Cost - million dollars US Weapons Weapon Type - 30mm autocannon Primary Purpose - anti-aircraft Range - 2000m Damage - 1d4x100+50 per 10 round burst Rate Of Fire - equal to pilots attacks Payload - 120 armour piercing incendiary rounds Bonuses - na Weapon Type - Hardpoints (14, 6 main body, 4 per wing) Primary Purpose - Anti-fighter, anti-installation Range - As per missile type Damage - As per missile type Rate Of Fire - 1 at a time equal to pilot attacks Payload - 1 Lt HE or HE air to air missile or 1 Lt HE, HE or Heavy HE air to surface missile or 2 Lt HE bombs or 1 HE bomb Bonuses - +1 strike for missiles and guided bombs bonuses and penalities Use vehicle combat training and combat flying +1 attack at level 6 and 12 +1 dodge at level 5, 10 and 15 +1 strike ranged +10% to piloting rolls Systems of Note Radar - Range of 200 miles (370km). Able to track upto 24 targets, display 18 targets and lock onto 6 targets at once. Radar Warning Receiver - Warns of potential Radar Lock. Range - 200 miles ECM Pod - -20% penalty to opposing radar/sensor operators to detect Chaff/Flare Dispensers - 75% to cause locked on missiles to lose lock and fly off elsewhere. Targeting Computer - +1 to strike with all on board weapon systems Combat Computer - Identifies Friend or Foe and is tied to the radar System. Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night (LANTIRN) - For dropping laser guided munitions. +1 to strike with said munitions. FLIR - Advanced forward looking infa-red system for night operations GPS/Inertial Navigation System. Communications - range 500km, can beboosted by satellite uplink Ejection Systems - Ejects occupants from damaged aircraft. References Used Wikipedia